The present invention relates to a combined air-hydrogen turbo-rocket power plant capable of accelerating an aircraft or the like to hypersonic speeds at high altitudes.
French patent No. 2,215,538 describes a power plant of this type in which an axial air compressor is driven by an axial turbine rotated by hydrogen gas. The turbine is coaxially located with respect to the air compressor and is connected to the compressor by a generally axially extending shaft. The hydrogen expanding through the turbine is subsequently injected into an air duct which surrounds the turbine and the compressor, and defines an airflow path. The hydrogen is burned while it is being mixed with the compressed air issuing from the compressor and the mixture of burned gases is exhausted downstream through a diverging exhaust pipe.
While the performance of this known power plant is adequate, the complexity of the device is believed to be unduly high due to the number of compressor stages required to achieve a good air compression ratio and because of the complicated mechanical structure necessitated by the location of the hydrogen-feed turbine in the middle of the airflow duct.